Shine: Ignite Your Inner Game to Lead Consciously at Work and in the World

By Carley Hauck and Lynne Twist

A top conscious business consultant shares the essential inner skills you need to be a force for change—in your workplace and in the world.
 
The way we do business is changing. Every day, we see new evidence that we’ve got to move away from the status quo that is burning out workers, enabling greed, and endangering our planet. Yet how do you develop the skills and practical tools to prioritize people, planet, and prosperity? “Everything starts with your inner game,” teaches conscious business consultant Carley Hauck. “In this book, I’ll share the most powerful methods I know for learning to fully embody your highest values, lead with compassion and generosity, and create soul-nourishing workplaces that become forces of good in the world.”
 
With Shine: Ignite Your Inner Game to Lead Consciously at Work and in the World, Hauck distills the research-based methods and game-changing skills she’s brought to corporate settings such as LinkedIn, Pixar, Genentech, Clif Bar, and more. Here you’ll learn tools and practices for cultivating the six “inner game skills” for conscious leadership: 
 
• Self-Awareness—understand your strengths, blind spots, motivations, and behaviors, and how these impact others
• Emotional Intelligence—learn how to navigate challenging feelings and develop the qualities of empathy and attunement
• Resilience—how to adapt gracefully to the constant state of change in business and the world
• Love—lead from the heart, create a caring and collaborative workplace, and build lasting connections based on shared passion and ideals
• Well-Being—self-care techniques to prevent burnout in the workplace and promote sustainability for the planet
• Authenticity—embracing the shadow sides of yourself and your workplace through vulnerability, forgiveness, and trust
 
Leadership in a conscious workplace is not just about CEOs and executives—everyone has a role to play to create a healthier, more equitable, earth-friendly way of doing business. “I want to support you in cultivating a strong, brilliant inner game that will help you inspire greater collaboration, innovation, and belonging,” says Carley Hauck. “We need each other’s support for a collective response to today’s complexities. When we grow the qualities that allow us to shine from the inside out, we each contribute our light to the creation of a better world.”

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sounds True
• Release date: Feb 23, 2021
• ISBN: 9781683643234

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Praise for Shine

"An important book for the complex and transformative times we are living and leading in. Carley Hauck charts a pathway forward of the essential, game-changing inner skills leaders and employees need to create a workplace and world that serves everyone. By embracing all parts of ourselves—the dark and the light—and leaning into learning new skills, Shine teaches that we can bring our best and whole self to work and to our changing world."

—Chip Conley, American hotelier, hospitality entrepreneur, speaker, and author of Wisdom at Work

"Shine is the book for you if you want to awaken the next level of leadership and business in yourself, at work, and be a force for good in the world. Carley Hauck illuminates a pathway for anyone with the call to lead with research, tools, practices, and compelling stories that will truly inspire you. You will never see leadership the same way."

—Sheryl O'Loughlin, CEO of REBBL, cofounder of Plum Organics, and former CEO of Clif Bar & Company

"Shine is a dynamic, practical, and visionary book at the cutting edge of a new wave of thought leadership centered on sustainability and self-awareness. Carley Hauck introduces innovative exercises that will help leaders with diverse lifestyles hone a solid foundation of resilience and tenacity, proving that the most effective leadership development begins within. The seamless blend between real-world stories and data-driven studies illustrates how the modern-day paradigms of power and business require a new standard of leadership, one that Carley is well equipped to usher in. More than an insightful toolkit for anyone looking to thrive in pressurized corporate environments, Shine is an emotional detox for the soul."

—Jennifer Brown, diversity and inclusion consultant and author of How to Be an Inclusive Leader

"Shine is an important book that highlights the essential leadership skills for today’s world. Carley guides you through the important inner game one must cultivate to lead consciously at work and in life. The practices, research, and authentic stories will inspire you to create a new kind of workplace and world that prioritizes people and the environment."

—Mike Robbins, author of We're All in This Together

"In this illuminating and kind book, Carley Hauck provides a field guide, brimming with wisdom and practice, to 21st-century leadership. Shine is such a timely and deeply needed book, one urgently requiring attention during our complex times. This wonderful book will give you hope, courage, and a sense of wonder at what we might become."

—Dacher Keltner, PhD, director of the Greater Good Science Center and author of The Power Paradox

"An important contribution by Carley Hauck to help businesses and individuals live in authenticity and wholeness. Shine exudes an honest and earnest care, and blends science, personal story, interviews, and optimism in a mix that will help any who crosses its path."

—Fred Luskin, PhD, director of the Stanford University Forgiveness Projects and author of Forgive for Good

"Carley Hauck gives us a playbook to build our self-awareness, strengthen our resilience, and live and lead with our lights on. The world needs all of us to Shine a little brighter right now."

—Scott Shute, head of mindfulness and compassion programs, LinkedIn

"Carley Hauck offers us a valuable platform from which to both know one’s own self better, and then to bring that more aware self to the role of leadership by tuning in to what matters most. Shine will help us all realize exactly what we need to do first, next, and always to create a better workplace and world."

—Scott Kriens, cofounder of 1440 Multiversity, former CEO of Juniper Networks

"Carley Hauck has been teaching others how to use their gifts to make this a better world for a long time now. In Shine, she’s finally put her experience into a wonderful, engaging book that can show us how to bring out the best in ourselves to support the flourishing of our workplaces and planet."

—James Baraz, author of Awakening Joy and Awakening Joy for Kids, cofounder of Spirit Rock Meditation Center

"Carley Hauck has done the unimaginable. She has woven the practical and the spiritual, the mindful and the heartfelt, the individualistic and the relational, in the perfect sacred balance. With her tools and insights, we are finally ready to co-create the kind of conscious capitalism that is utterly essential for humanity going forward. Without this, we are lost. Shine lights the way home."

—Jeff Brown, author of Grounded Spirituality and An Uncommon Bond

Sounds True

Boulder, CO 80306

© 2021 Carley Hauck

Foreword © Lynne Twist

Sounds True is a trademark of Sounds True, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission from the author(s) and publisher.

Published 2021

Book design by Kate Kaminski, Happenstance Type-O-Rama

The wood used to produce this book is from Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified forests, recycled materials, or controlled wood.

Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-­in-­Publication Data

Names: Hauck, Carley, author.

Title: Shine: Ignite Your Inner Game to Lead Consciously at Work and in

   the World / Carley Hauck.

Description: Boulder, CO : Sounds True, 2021. | Includes bibliographical

   references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019022896 (print) | LCCN 2019022897 (ebook) | ISBN

   9781683642671 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781683643234 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Leadership — Moral and ethical aspects. | Mindfulness

   (Psychology) | Values. | Social responsibility of business.

Classification: LCC HD57.7 .H3887 2021 (print) | LCC HD57.7 (ebook) | DDC

   658.4/092 — dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019022896

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019022897

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To all those who feel called to lead and be part of the new paradigm of leadership to change the world for the greatest good. You inspire me, and I am rooting for you.

Foreword

In your hands, you hold a book that can change your life. It is filled with inspiration, stories, and practical wisdom to ignite your leadership and wake you up to your soul’s purpose. My friend and colleague Carley Hauck has been inspiring leaders, organizations, and students at Stanford University and other business schools with skills to inspire the mind and open the heart to what really matters.

Our capitalist economy has produced great wealth at enormous costs. The underlying corporate behavior is a predominant cause of global challenges such as climate change, social injustice, and increasing worldwide economic disparity. Our current economy is linear—it has a beginning and an end. Companies dig up materials, turn those materials into a product, and then ship that product to an end user, who eventually tosses it in the trash. But that system has to change. According to one of Google’s sustainability projects, In 2017, global demand for resources was roughly 1.7 times what the Earth can support in one year, which means the linear economy model will soon slam into the edge of its physical limits.1 What we need now is a regenerative model in which we design products, materials, and supply chains with cycles that are reusable and safe for human health and the environment.

Companies, and the men and women who lead them, have enormous power in shaping the world we all live in. There are more than 7.5 billion people on this planet, and that number is growing. Pollution does not see color, age, gender, or race. We need to creatively come together to ensure that there are enough resources for everyone to thrive.

Business is the largest institution we have, and the responsibility and opportunity that come with it are amazing, especially for leaders and entrepreneurs. We have been in a trance, focused too much on external worth and not enough on developing our self-worth and conscious inner game.

Our inner game directs our outer game, Carley reminds us. How developed is your inner game?

Leaders and businesses should shift to a new paradigm where businesses compete not just for customers but for how they can do best for the world. When you listen to what you most care about and align those values with how you lead yourself, your colleagues, and your business, you will triple the bottom line for people, planet, and profit. When you lead from your heart, all actions align with that clear vision, purpose, and mission.

What can we do individually and collectively to begin to retire these unwholesome thoughts and structures in our world?

The first thing we need to do is wake up and expand what is possible. We should stay committed to practices that ignite us so we can be the light and shine the light for others as well. It’s about having the kind of developed and conscious inner game Carley talks about in this book.

In these pages, Carley lays out the path for a better workplace and world using practical exercises, modern scientific research, and the inspiring stories of nine conscious leaders who embody these ways of living, being, and leading at work and in the world. You will learn how to develop your leadership with dignity, humility, compassion, and strength. Read these words slowly. Savor them and practice the exercises in this book. Use them to lead with love and to transform your life and the world.

May it be so.

Lynne Twist

Spring 2020

Introduction

Conscious leadership is not something we typically learn in business school, but today leaders of every generation are being invited into a new era of leadership. Conscious leadership embodies a new mindset, a new operating model of wholeness that is connected to the core parts of ourselves, and to what I describe as our inner game. Conscious leaders have a strong sense of purpose; they know leadership is about serving and following a calling to positively transform the workplace and the world. They want to reconnect to their inner nature and create and lead soulful organizations that enhance all of life. The inner qualities that enable that kind of leadership, the ways in which real-world leaders bring them to the workplace, and how you too can bring your inner game forward are the subjects of this book.

On Tuesday, January 15, 2018, chief executives of the world’s largest public companies received a letter from the CEO of BlackRock, one of the world’s most influential investment firms, informing them that their companies would need to do more than make a profit if they wanted to receive BlackRock’s financial support. Society is demanding that companies, both public and private, serve a social purpose, Laurence D. Fink wrote. To prosper over time, every company must not only deliver financial performance but also show how it makes a positive contribution to society.1

Fink’s letter highlighted what many of us in the conscious business world have known for a long time: that companies, and the men and women who lead them, have enormous power to shape the world. It is up to business leaders, Fink cautioned, to ensure that there are enough resources available for everyone to thrive.

In order to keep up with the rising complexity of our world, a new way of leading and operating is essential. Yet in 2018, when the company Deloitte surveyed more than 14,000 CEOs across twenty-three industries, it found a clear complexity gap in leadership consciousness: leaders didn’t feel they had the skills to address the multiple complexities we all face.2 Working professionals today are dealing with challenges we have not witnessed before, including:

Disruptive innovations

More diverse ages in the workforce than ever before, with younger populations desiring a new, more remote, and flexible way of working

Market volatility

A worldwide pandemic

High levels of stress, burnout, and depression

Systemic issues related to climate change, resource scarcity, and the disruption of ecosystems

For the last decade, I have worked with conscious leaders as a learning architect, leadership development professional, and executive coach. I have observed certain inner qualities that conscious leaders possess and will support this new era of leadership in meeting these complexities. A conscious inner game is the capacity for self-awareness, emotional intelligence, resilience, love, authenticity, and well-being. To help encourage and foster these characteristics I developed the Shine Leadership System, a program of experiential practices and skills. I have used this system at companies like LinkedIn, Bank of the West, Pixar, Genentech, Intel, Clif Bar & Company, and high-growth startups. I have found that leaders who possess these qualities create caring, innovative, and collaborative workplaces.

This book will teach you how to lead by helping you grow a strong, conscious inner game that will become the core of your leadership: the internal qualities, beliefs, and values that determine how you show up and navigate life and the workplace. The inner game is your internal operating system—a set of skills that steadies you and strengthens your mind, body, and heart. A strong inner game supports the flow and release of your emotions and keeps you open, curious, and resilient. And these qualities determine how you lead.

Once you’ve cultivated and enhanced your inner game, you’ll be able to more effectively withstand the storms and challenges of life, solve pressing challenges at work and in the world, and truly shine in your leadership role. Most businesses focus on the outer game or leadership competencies, but to become a strong, conscious leader, you must first develop your inner game skills and add these essential elements to your leadership toolbox—and your life toolbox, too.

Your inner game directs your outer game—how others experience you on the outside, in life and the workplace. Your inner game informs how you communicate, make decisions, and guide and motivate your team, and ultimately, how you align your values in leadership and business. Technology can solve an infinite number of business challenges, but the human element in the workplace can never be replaced by artificial intelligence. Business is fundamentally about relationships and human decision-making, and that’s why when we evolve and grow our inner game to positively influence our outer game, we can solve big challenges together—flourishing at work, creating belonging, healing the planet, and repairing the world.

My Leadership Journey

I believe that leaders have vast power to influence businesses and the world as a whole in positive ways. My own journey toward conscious leadership began when, as a child, I watched my father bring work stress home, and home stress to work. We bring our whole selves with us wherever we go, and the way my dad related to stress and life in his leadership role as an attorney was not the way I wanted to navigate my world. I wanted to find a more graceful, resilient, and joyful way to live and lead. And that is exactly what led me to develop the tools and inner-game leadership skills I teach and that are included in this book.

I took the next step of my journey at age nineteen when I read His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s book The Art of Happiness. I was hooked by its straightforward and clear message of living a life of ease, happiness, and resilience. Because of the book, I began a meditation practice, and over the twenty-plus years since, I have discovered many new gems by sitting and quieting my mind, turning toward and finding refuge in my body, and opening my heart.

I created a curriculum based on these practices while attending graduate school, then moved to San Francisco, where I taught two different courses infused with meditation and embodiment practices at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco. A few months later, a human resource professional at the law firm Littler Mendelson contacted me to ask if I could come in and teach the lawyers how to increase their resilience to stress. After thinking about it for a moment, I said, Yes, I can. And that was the turning point, the moment when I stepped into my larger purpose of supporting leaders in accessing their greatest gifts and purpose.

My work with leaders, businesses, students, and faculty at Stanford University and University of California, Berkeley’s Haas School of Business is informed by my love of research and human-centered design. I think of the role I play with companies as healing business. To do this, I design leadership and development programs for workplaces and foster cultural learning and leadership transformation through initiatives that enhance psychological safety, trust, and caring, and belonging in these settings. The interaction of the mind, body, and heart, and bringing one’s wholeness to work and life have always been areas of fascination for me, in both research and implementation.

I’m also interested in the intersection of disease, stress, healing, and organizational health, and my education and career choices have reflected that. I studied health psychology and organizational psychology in graduate school and have always loved research and being part of research studies. Between undergrad and graduate school, I was selected as a National Science Foundation fellow and conducted three months of research in a neuroscience lab at Kent State University, assessing the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) on the body’s physiology, particularly the effects of stress hormones. Later, while studying health psychology in graduate school, I developed a ten-week program that integrated meditation, exercise, and socio-emotional learning for cancer patients. I continued to work with cancer patients at California Pacific Medical Center’s Institute for Health & Healing, in the fields of integrative medicine and counseling, and teaching courses to help people train their minds, open their hearts, nourish their bodies, and lead more resilient, healthy, and courageous lives.

While I was working with leaders and companies through my business, Leading from Wholeness, I pursued my love of research and became a lead consultant/facilitator on two six-year studies with the University of California, San Francisco’s Osher Center for Integrative Medicine, funded by the National Institutes of Health. These studies observed the long-term benefits of mindfulness and other practices to support resilience to stress, reduction of the stress hormone cortisol, weight loss, emotional regulation, well-being, and the prevention of type 2 diabetes. This study confirmed that much of the curriculum I’d been teaching had solid scientific evidence to back it up.

During this time of research and applying these concepts of meditation and healing in the workplace, I also dove more deeply into the study of Buddhism and integrated its wise teachings into my personal and professional life.

Then, in 2013, my life changed in the most amazing way. A friend and colleague, Fred Luskin, called me. He explained that Stanford University was looking for new adjunct faculty and was interested in bringing some new electives into its course curriculum. He had shared my teachings and curriculum with the staff.

What do you think about teaching at Stanford? he asked me.

Fred, you had me at hello, I said.

I’ve been happily teaching at Stanford ever since, covering a variety of topics related to mindfulness, resilience, healthy conflict, forgiveness, and embodied leadership. After I began teaching at Stanford, Fred and I collaborated and spoke on the subjects of forgiveness, happiness, and emotional intelligence, both at Stanford and at other professional organizations.

I also teach on the subjects of leadership at University of California, Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and at other business schools around the country and the world.

I share the highlights of my journey to offer a broad explanation of how I arrived at the tools and techniques you will learn in this book. While the path has not been a straight line, everything I’ve learned in and out of the lab, has reinforced my belief that there are numerous sources we can draw upon to develop our best selves.

I have found through my teaching, coaching, and serving leaders that when an individual leader is off balance and not leading from a whole and healed place, it will impact the ability of the entire workplace to perform, care for one another, collaborate, and innovate. That means the product or service this business puts out into the world will have a less-than-positive impact. So, the more we can heal and transform on the inside, as individuals (the inner game), the more connected, resilient, innovative, and caring our workplaces will be (the outer game). And because the workplace and our natural world are connected, business can be a platform for positive change that prioritizes the well-being of people and the planet first. That connection is the primary motivation in my work and was the impetus for this book.

Healing the Workplace and the World

I first heard internal whispers of protecting people and the planet when I was a young child walking along the beach in St. Augustine, Florida, my family’s summer vacation spot. There, I found lots of trash and plastic and, inevitably, plastic bags that I filled with litter. I brought these stuffed bags back to the condo my family rented.

I remember my mom looking at me with a bewildered expression and saying, Carley, what am I supposed to do with these bags of trash?

Mom, the trash isn’t supposed to be in the ocean or on the beach, I said. A sea turtle is going to think it’s a jellyfish and eat it.

This desire to be a good steward of the Earth didn’t stop there. Five years ago, I was playing with my then four-year-old nephew Cooper, who like me has a strong love of the ocean and marine life.

He looked up at me and said, Auntie Carley, can we save the oceans together?

I was moved by his invitation and felt responsible for making sure Cooper and all future generations can enjoy a world where healthy coral reefs and marine life still thrive. With a trembling in my heart, I said, "Yes sweetheart, we can." At four years old, he was already connected to the world he was inheriting and had asked me to take a stand with him.

You, my friend, are the Earth. The Earth is mostly water and so is your body; you are around 60 percent water.